I am an American living in UK temporarily and am likely to go back to the States in 2 years. I am tempted to go for my MBA here as many programs are quite a lot cheaper than in the US, and I like international aspects of European MBA's. What I am not sure about is how UK MBA's are perceived by the US employers. Which programs would give me the best career prospects? I have 18 years of work experience in IT with 6 years of management experience. I am only considering part time or distance learning formats. My current idea is to move up within my company. However I want to stay open to other possibilities as well, after getting my MBA, so brand recognition is important. In my research I identified the following programs:
- LBS (EMBA, but not considering seriously, too competitive)
- Cranfield (part time)
- Warwick (DL/part time)
- Manchester (Global MBA or MBA for Engineering Business Managers, part time/blended)

Does anyone have any information on how these are perceived in US? Any others I have missed? What about Henley, Durham, Imperial College London, Cass? I've never heard of them when I lived in US, but then again, typical American will only know about Oxford and Cambridge.

Thanks for any help!

- LBS (EMBA, but not considering seriously, too competitive)

I'm pretty sure American recruiters also know a high ranking schools like LBS or Warwick. any ways, in your case, with so much experience, I'm not sure it really matters where you get your MBA from, since you bring lots of experience with you, which is by far most important. an MBA would boost your salary though, and expand your horizons, so i would definitely go for it!

I am an American living in UK temporarily and am likely to go back to the States in 2 years. I am tempted to go for my MBA here as many programs are quite a lot cheaper than in the US, and I like international aspects of European MBA's. What I am not sure about is how UK MBA's are perceived by the US employers. Which programs would give me the best career prospects? I have 18 years of work experience in IT with 6 years of management experience. I am only considering part time or distance learning formats. My current idea is to move up within my company. However I want to stay open to other possibilities as well, after getting my MBA, so brand recognition is important. In my research I identified the following programs:
- LBS (EMBA, but not considering seriously, too competitive)
- Cranfield (part time)
- Warwick (DL/part time)
- Manchester (Global MBA or MBA for Engineering Business Managers, part time/blended)

Does anyone have any information on how these are perceived in US? Any others I have missed? What about Henley, Durham, Imperial College London, Cass? I've never heard of them when I lived in US, but then again, typical American will only know about Oxford and Cambridge.

Thanks for any help!

>Oxford and Cambridge too...but in actuality, these, according to most ranks, are second-tier schools. <

I agree..

>I'd say focus your efforts on LBS, Oxford and Cambridge.<

For the sake of recognition in the US, the above advice is apropos.

All the B schools mentioned are good...in general they can be ranked in the following order for their MBA degrees (not MSc):
LBS>Cass=Warwick=Cranfield>Said=Judge>Tanaka> Manchester>Henley>Durham

Unfortunately, I agree that there is not much awareness of the strong UK business schools in the US. LBS, Cambridge, and Oxford are the brand names we typically recognize. It's a shame, but it's generally true.

Is Warwick or Manchester MBA recognised in US?

Warwick is at least listed in Business Week rankings, but not rated. I guess it's considered 2 tier. Manchester is not even listed. I know that Warwick has significant number of alumni in North America, but that includes Canada. I'm waiting on Warwick to provide me a list of some grads in the US to talk to. In any case, the weight of Warwick and Manchester MBA is a lot less in the US than that of LBS and Oxbridge, which is a shame, but that's another story.

Both are listed in Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/distance_mba_profiles/warwick.html

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/05/distance_profiles/manchester.htm

Is Warwick or Manchester MBA recognised in US?

MBA is just a three letters in front of your name. The matter is what 's you learn, which means choose the MBA that best fits your career goals. The experiences you have, you already have better knowledge than what they teach in MBA courses, and I think you will be able to teach Harvard MBA classes. So why worried about reputation. I am from the U.S. and I think UK MBA is just as good as US. Some are even better. For example, Warwick, Manchester, Strathclyde, Cass, they are all good ranking schools and better than Boston University or Boston College. An MBA graduate from Boston U or Boston College usually holds position as a CEO later in their career. The top companies will hire you as long as your choice of schools are in the top 100, world's ranking.

Regards,
Emran

Hi,

out of curiasity, what program have you chosen? and what further information have you obtained regarding recognition/job prospects in the USA post top UK MBA graduation.

thanks

Ron

Hi Ron,

I eventually chose Warwick MBA by Distance Learning, I'm starting in January. After researching all the schools, it became obvious that face-to-face time commitments as well as costs of most EMBA programs make them unrealistic and poor choices from ROI perspective. I am not getting any time away from my employer. So, the main contenders then became Warwick and Henley. I liked Warwick more due to solid overall reputation (and not just WBS, but U of Warwick as a whole) and also very flexible format. There are a lot of electives available, and it is possible to take some modules face-to-face and even switch to part time mode after the first year.
Regarding recognition, I was not able to obtain any serious data, but between Warwick and Henley, I have a feeling that Warwick is better known. But this feeling is not supported by any official data.

It is actually...!! In EIU, Henley is ranked above Warwick but in reality as far as the reputation is concerned Warwick is multiple times better than Henley...seriously, in UK its LBS, WBS and Cranfield...top 3...no argument...good choice...I hope you will find the my.wbs easy to use...welcome aboard.

_Nes